Lincoln Mayor Don Wesely today announced that the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health
Department (LLCHD) and its partners have received a $250,000 grant from the Tobacco Free
Nebraska Program of the Nebraska Health and Human Services System (HHS). The funds are
part of the national tobacco settlement and are designated specifically for use in schools
and communities. Locally, the funds will be used for efforts to prevent children from
starting to use tobacco and to protect the public from exposure to environmental tobacco
smoke.

"Tobacco use costs Lancaster County tens of millions of dollars a year, and the cost to the
state is in the hundreds of millions," said Wesely. "Using tobacco settlement funds to
prevent our kids from starting to use tobacco and to protect the public from environmental
tobacco smoke will have a huge economic payback."

The LLCHD and its partners, the Lincoln Medical Education Foundation and the Lincoln
Council on Alcoholism and Drugs, were notified last week that their application for the
tobacco prevention and control funds had been approved. Other agencies included in the
project are the Lincoln Public Schools; Health Education, Inc.; BryanLGH; the UNL Health
Center; the American Lung Association; the American Cancer Society; the American Heart
Association; and the Lancaster County Extension Service . The participating agencies are
all part of the Tobacco Free Lincoln Coalition, and the projects funded by the new grant
complement the local Coalition's efforts to reduce disease and death caused from tobacco
use.

LLCHD currently receives funding for tobacco control and prevention from the Centers for
Disease Control Prevention through the Nebraska HHS. This funding is used for education
programs in the schools; reducing youth access to tobacco through such activities such as
retail compliance checks; and efforts to promote clean indoor air.

The new funds will be used to educate the public about the hazards of tobacco smoke, to
promote clean air policies, to help businesses become smoke free and to work with young
people to help them become tobacco-free advocates.